The Kraken

[The Doctor]

Probably no legendary sea monster was as horrifying as the Kraken. According to stories this huge, many armed, creature could reach as high as the top of a sailing ship's main mast. Kraken's would attack a ship, wrap their arms around the hull and capsize it. The crew would drown or be eaten by the monster. What's amazing about the Kraken stories is that, of all the sea monster tales known, we have the best evidence that these are real.

Early stories about Kraken, from Norway in the twelfth century, refer to a creature the size of an island. Even in 1752, when the Bishop of Bergen, Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan, wrote his The Natural History of Norway he described the Kraken as a "floating island". "Its back is about a mile and a half in circumference - it looks like a number of small islands surrounded by what looks like seaweed." He also noted: "It seems these are the creatures's arms, and, it is said, if they were to lay hold of the largest man-of-war, they would pull it down to the bottom." Later Kraken stories bring the creature down to a smaller, but still monstrous, size.

The Kraken of legend is most probably what we know today as the giant squid. While a colossal octopus might also fit the description, the squid is thought to be much more aggressive and more likely to come to the surface where it might be seen by man. Though giant squids are considerably less then a mile and a half across, they are large enough to wrestle with a sperm whale. On at least three occasions in the 1930's they attacked a ship. While the squids got the worst of these encounters when they slid into the ship's propellers, the fact that they attacked at all shows that it is possible for these creatures to mistake a vessel for a whale.

What if a large squid, say a hundred feet long and weighing two or three tons, attacked a small sailing ship? (Remember many early vessels, even those that crossed the Atlantic, measured much less than one hundred feet in length) It might well have been able to turn it over.

According to the Speculum Regale ("The King's Mirror", Norway, 1250): "There is a fish not yet mentioned which it is scarcely advisable to speak about on account of its size, which to most men will seem incredible. There are, moreover, but very few who can tell anything definite about it, inasmuch as it is rarely seen by men; for it almost never approaches the shore or appears where fishermen can see it, and I doubt that this sort of fish is very plentiful in the sea. In our language it is usually called the kraken. I can say nothing definite as to its length in ells, for on those occasions when men have seen it, it has appeared more like an island than a fish. Nor have I heard that one has ever been caught or found dead. It seems likely that there are but two in all the ocean and that these beget no offspring, for I believe it is always the same ones that appear. Nor would it be well for other fishes if they were as numerous as the other whales, seeing that they are so immense and need so much food. It is said, that when these fishes want something to eat, they are in the habit of giving forth a violent belch, which brings up so much food that all sorts of fish in the neighborhood, both large and small, will rush up in the hope of getting nourishment and good fare. Meanwhile the monster keeps it mouth open, and inasmuch as its opening is about as wide as a sound or fjord, the fishes cannot help crowding in great numbers. But as soon as its mouth and belly are full, the monster closes its mouth and thus catches and shuts in all the fishes that just previously had rushed in eagerly to seek food."

Since the late 18th century, Kraken have been depicted in a number of ways, primarily as a large octopus-like creature, and it has often been alleged that Pontoppidan's Kraken might have been based on sailors' observations of the giant squid. The earliest descriptions of the creature were more crab- than octopus-like, however, and generally possess traits that are associated with large whales rather than with giant squids. Some traits of kraken resemble undersea volcanic activity occurring in the Iceland region, including bubbles of water, sudden, dangerous currents and appearance of new islets.

In 1802, however, the French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort in Historie Naturalle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques, an encyclopedic description of mollusks, recognized the existence of two kinds of giant octopus. One being the kraken octopus, which Denys de Montfort believed had been described not only by Norwegian sailors and American whalers, but also by ancient writers such as Pliny the Elder. The second one being the much larger colossal octopus (the one actually depicted by the first image) which reportedly attacked a sailing vessel from Saint-Malo off the coast of Angola.

Montfort later dared more sensational claims. He proposed that ten British warships that had mysteriously disappeared one night in 1782 must have been attacked and sunk by giant octopii. Unfortunately for Montfort, the British knew what had happened to the ships, resulting in a disgraceful revelation for Montfort. Denys de Montfort´s career never recovered and he died starving and poor in Paris around 1820 (Sjögren, 1980). In defence of Denys de Montfort, it should be noted that many of his sources for the "kraken octopus" probably described the very real giant squid, proved to exist in 1857.

The Kraken

a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Below the thunders of the upper deep;

Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee

About his shadowy sides: above him swell

Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;

And far away into the sickly light,

From many a wondrous grot and secret cell

Unnumber’d and enormous polypi

Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.

There hath he lain for ages and will lie

Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,

Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;

Then once by man and angels to be seen,

In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

(Cobbled together from a number of Internet sources by yours truly)

[Christine]

It's funny, when I hear the name Kraken I think of the movie Clash of the Titans! And that creature looked nothing like a giant squid-lol!

[The Doctor]

Yeah, the legends paint the Kraken as a giant squid, a giant octopus, or a giant lobster. Never a giant Sleestak!

[JohnnyTarr]

It is too bad that I know of no one recently that has ever seen a live one. I hear that once in a while fishing vessels will pull up a good sized squid. But the only Giant Squids to date that I know of are ones that have died and been washed up on shore. Just my two pence worth.

[Tatu Ni'all]

A friend of mine was telling me scientists in Australia are raising two Architeuthidae squids since none have been observed alive. I'm not sure the status of said Architeuthidae but it sounds pretty cool.

I was in Florida for a vist and at the Mote Aquarium http://www.mote.org/ they have a 25 foot perserved squid. It's pretty darn large.

[MorganTyre]

It is too bad that I know of no one recently that has ever seen a live one. I hear that once in a while fishing vessels will pull up a good sized squid. But the only Giant Squids to date that I know of are ones that have died and been washed up on shore. Just my two pence worth.

Some months ago the giant squid was filmed by a team in japan. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9503272/

[JohnnyTarr]

Now that is a great video. Legends come to life.

[Sir Eric]

Fantastic! Thanks for the link to the video. I've always been fascinated by the giant squid, and have always kept an eye out for the day when somebody finally captured one on film.

Now... on to Bigfoot!

[LadyBarbossa]

Aye. After hearing of the Giant Squid nearly a year ago that was found and documented ALIVE by a Japanese Research team... how can one argue? Evidence is out there.

Though... I love the giant robotic Leviathan in Disney's Atlantis. Wicked beast.

I always continue to wonder about more of the sea tales. And like hearing them.

~Lady B

[Captain Midnight]

I remember watching the short clip of that giant squid several months ago; was it ever determined how large the thing actually was? I would have to say the Kraken is probably my favorite of all the fabulous sea monsters.

[Atala Syrcuse]

There are far more mysteries under the sea than shall ever be discovered in my lifetime I fear. Some creatures aren't likely to be found unless they want to be.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Wait... I thought THIS was a Kraken...

[Maggie Pricklebottom]

Kracken with a tiny Harry Hamlin....on a tiny Pegasus to the rescue of Andromeda.

[flying-dutch-man]

kraken;s are indeeed real! :)

[Rumba Rue]

Kracken with a tiny Harry Hamlin....on a tiny Pegasus to the rescue of Andromeda.

Yup an' don' it just kracken ye up?

[Mr_Scabbs]

Does anyone else suspect that the Kraken in POTC 2 is actually the Flying Spaghetti Monster? I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

[The Doctor]

Hmmm... OK, given that the Kraken predates the Flying Spaghetti Monster by 2000 years, and that the FSM has no suckers on it's "tentacles", it's an unaquivocable no.

[Mr_Scabbs]

Great. Way to throw rain on my parade.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Can you imagine how tasty the Kraken would be?

Screw calamari being a mere appetizer -- just one of those tentacles would be a main couse for the entire voyage!

[Sir Eric]

It's alright Mr. Scabbs... Mad Jack simply has not been touched by his noodly appendage, that's all. Me, I think you're on to something!

[The Doctor]

I tried to talk my wife into having calamari for an appetizer the day after we saw PotC2. She just shuddered and remarked that she just couldn't bring herself to eat Davy Jones' beard.

[Rumba Rue]

I like calamari. In fact I've had octopuss too...though the suckers are bit chewy....

[Ransom]

Actually, I have a very fat octopus tentcle in my freezer. Keeping it company are two calimari steaks. We get them fresh from the Sea Hawk fish market in Charleston, just a step away from our little boat.

BTW, I think Disney has a facination with the Kraaken. Not only did POTC 2 have it, but also Twenty Thousand Leagues Under/Beneath (can't remember) the Sea. There were quite a few movie references in POTC 2, so I'm wondering if that's why they included it.

[Captain Jim]

Hmmm...  OK, given that the Kraken predates the Flying Spaghetti Monster by 2000 years, and that the FSM has no suckers on it's "tentacles", it's an unaquivocable no.

Now, now, let’s not go spreading heresy about the Pub! The Flying Spaghetti Monster (praise be to the sauce!) created all things and, therefore, the kraken. It was the calamitous fall in the world population of Pyrates that only recently caused the FSM to reveal himself and stem global warming. See for yourself:

As to the tentacle suckers in the movie, must be just a mistake on the part of the artists.

[Maggie Pricklebottom]

Count me in as a pastafarian!!! (BTW...did you read the book? verra, verra funny)